The Girl In the Red Dress
by netgirly2k
Summary: She dreams of Camelot engulfed in flames.


There's a girl in a red dress at the feast, and nobody can see her but Morgana.

Morgana knows this because the girl is beautiful and none of the knights are looking at her – or making intoxicated and unwelcome demands of her.

* * *

Morgana dreams of Camelot engulfed in flames.

* * *

There's a girl in a red dress and she follows Morgana through the castle corridors.

"Who are you?"

The girl says nothing, but crooks a finger for Morgana to follow her. She shows Morgana ways out of the castle; secret, forgotten ways, that let out well beyond the city boundaries.

Morgana can't imagine why she'd ever need to escape from Camelot, but she remembers the secret passageways all the same.

* * *

Morgana dreams of flames, and screaming, and--

* * *

The girl in the red dress is standing at the foot of the bed when Morgana awakes. It's the sight of her rather than the dream which makes Morgana scream.

"Gwen!"

Gwen abandons her makeshift bed in the next room and Morgana throws herself into her maidservant's arms.

The girl in the red dress smiles, smirks.

* * *

--Flames, and screaming. And a figure, in the shadows.

* * *

"Nimueh."

Morgana is so surprised to hear this girl who isn't real speak that she stabs herself in the hand with a fork.

Of all the times for Nimueh to break her silence it would have to be when Morgana is dining with the King, Arthur and the Mercian ambassador.

* * *

Once Nimueh starts speaking it's nigh on impossible to get her to shut up.

"He fires blanks, you know," Nimueh says of Uther during a particularly serious moment at court.

Morgana covers her laugh with a coughing fit, not especially ladylike but better than being beheaded for laughing at the King's virility.

* * *

The dream gets worse. She hears Uther scream as his kingdom burns, sees Arthur horribly scarred, Merlin pulling Gaius from a burning room, Gwen--

* * *

"What will you say to him?" Nimueh asks as Morgana stands frozen at the bottom of the steps to Gaius's tower. "'I'm being haunted by a beautiful woman in red'"

"Arthur would be terribly jealous."

"Arthur, Arthur, Arthur," Nimueh sing-songs. "Arthur should be jealous of you. You're the important one. You're the one who Sees."

* * *

Morgana can feel the flames lick her skin.

* * *

She doesn't scream for Gwen.

"How do I stop it?" she asks Nimueh.

"You need to See."

* * *

The figure in her dream, the one who isn't screaming, or burning or dying moves closer. Not close enough.

* * *

"What would you like to wear today, my lady?"

Morgana selects a gown of brilliant blue that sets off Nimueh's red.

Morgana has always appreciated beautiful aesthetics. Even when she's the only able to see them.

In the mirror Morgana sees Nimueh step up behind her. She imagines she can feel a warm presence at her back

"My beautiful Seer."

* * *

It's with a scream of frustration rather than fear that Morgana wakes.

A sorcerer is going to raze Camelot to the ground, and Morgana can't see who.

* * *

Merlin is serving at the royal table and walks straight through Nimueh.

Morgana laughs at the expression of disgust on Nimueh's face.

She hasn't slept in three days, she'll laugh at anything.

"He's been lying to you," says Nimueh.

* * *

Morgana is on her hands and knees, pulling up floorboards in Merlin's room.

She pulls out his book of magic.

"You need to learn," says Nimueh. "You'll be powerful when you learn."

* * *

Morgana never sees where she is during the fire. She never dreams of herself.

* * *

"Concentrate," Nimueh hisses. Morgana is reading Merlin's magic book by candlelight. "Concentrate."

"I bloody am concentrating-!"

The flames leap up, grazing the ceiling.

"Oh, Gods."

Nimueh smiles, smirks.

* * *

Morgana isn't surprised when she sees the face in her dream; her own face.

* * *

She isn't surprised when she wakes to find Camelot ablaze, and a girl in a red dress holding her hand out to Morgana.

"My beautiful girl."

Morgana wants to run, scream. Find Arthur, find Uther. She doesn't, she takes Nimueh's hand and allows her to draw Morgana from her bed.

Nimueh's hand feels warm, solid, real.

"My beautiful, beautiful girl."


End file.
